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The
Houston Astros
are slowly moving into contention for a third straight NL wild card berth.
The Astros look to complete their first three-game sweep at San Diego in nearly 24 years when the meet the Padres on Thursday
afternoon.
Houston (51-56) moved within four games of NL wild card leader Cincinnati with a 7-1 victory on Wednesday. The win gave the
defending NL champions consecutive victories for the first time since a four-game run from July 1-4.
The Astros last swept a three-game set in San Diego from Aug. 9-11, 1982 at Jack Murphy Stadium. They're 59-92 on the road
against the Padres since then.
Houston has used outstanding pitching to limit San Diego (55-52) to one run and 13 hits in this series.
Andy Pettitte
pitched six strong innings in a 1-0 victory on Tuesday and
Brandon Backe
gave up the only run in 7 2-3 innings in Wednesday's win.
Surging
Craig Biggio
homered twice and
Mike Lamb
also connected to give Backe all the support he needed. Biggio is 12-for-32 over his last seven games after a 5-for-43 skid.
''That's a little crazy and sad at the same time,'' Biggio said of Houston's recent inability to string together wins. ''We've
got to keep grinding it out. To come back and play better tonight was nice. It's a good start to the road trip.''
Matt Albers
(0-0, 0.00 ERA) will make his first major-league start for Houston. He was called up on July 20 from Double-A Corpus Christi
and has not allowed a run in two relief appearances.
The 23-year-old right-hander's last appearance was impressive. He took over for
Taylor Buchholz
last Thursday and gave up two hits in five scoreless innings in an 8-4 loss to Cincinnati.
''The first pitch I threw got hit pretty hard, but it went right at a guy,'' Albers said. ''I was like, 'OK, just keep it
up and get outs quick.'''
The Padres, who have dropped three straight and 12 of 19 overall, saw their NL West cut to one-half game over Arizona with
Wednesday's loss.
Third baseman
Todd Walker
's first start with the Padres was a forgettable one. Walker, acquired from the
Chicago Cubs
at Monday's trade deadline for a minor league pitcher, committed a pair of throwing errors - his second in the fifth inning
led to the Astros' first run.
''You can go out and really work and practice all you want. I felt great, I felt perfect in practice. When the bell rings,
it's a different deal,'' said Walker, who has nine errors this season.
Walker doubled and scored the Padres' only run in the fourth inning.
San Diego first baseman
Adrian Gonzalez
is 1-for-6 in the series. He has just four RBIs over his last 14 games after driving in 12 runs in five games before that.
The Padres will try to salvage the finale behind
Clay Hensley
(6-8, 4.46), who is 1-1 with a 3.06 ERA in three starts since the All-Star break. He gave up two runs and five hits over six
innings while issuing six walks last Friday in a 3-1 loss at Colorado.
''I felt good and had a lot of movement,'' Hensley said. ''The ball runs a little different here in altitude. Sometimes it
would sail to the right, sometimes straight down. If you don't have your good fastball, you've got to use your other pitches,
and I felt I did that.''
The right-hander is making his first career start against the Astros. He pitched two scoreless innings of relief against them
in a 7-4 victory in Aug. 24.
Hensley is 5-2 with a 3.29 ERA in eight home starts this year.
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